If the URL Category Set Changes, Take Action

The set of URL Filtering categories may occasionally change, in order to accommodate new web trends and evolving usage patterns.

These changes affect both policies and events.

Shortly before URL category changes are scheduled to occur, and after they occur, you will see alerts in the list of rules in any access control, SSL, and QoS policy that is affected by the changes, and on URL or Category in rules that you edit.

You should take action when you see these alerts.

Note

Updates to the URL category set as described in this topic are distinct from the changes that simply add new URLs to existing categories or re-classify misclassified URLs. This topic does not apply to category changes for individual URLs.

Procedure


Step 1

If you see an alert beside a rule in an access control policy, hover over the alert to see details.

Step 2

If the alert mentions changes to URL categories, edit the rule to see further details.

Step 3

Hover over the URL or Category in the rule dialog to see general information about the type of changes.

Step 4

If you see an alert beside a category, click the alert to view details.

Step 5

If you see a "More information" link in the description of a change, click it to view information about the category on the Talos web site.

Alternately, see a list and descriptions all categories at the link in URL Category and Reputation Descriptions.

Step 6

Depending on the type of change, take appropriate action:

Type of Category Change

What The System Will Do

What You Should Do

Existing category will soon be deprecated

Nothing yet. You have a few weeks to change affected rules.

If you do not take action in that time, the system eventually will not be able to redeploy the policy.

Remove this category from all rules that include it. If there is a similar new category, consider using that category instead.

New category is added

By default, the system does not use newly added categories.

Consider creating new rules for the new category.

Existing category is deleted

The category will appear in the rule in strikethrough text (that is, with a line through the category name.)

You must delete the obsolete category from the rule before you can deploy the policy.

Step 7

Check your SSL rules (Category) for these changes and take action as needed.

Step 8

Check your QoS rules (URL) for these changes and take action as needed.


What to do next

Deploy configuration changes; see Deploy Configuration Changes.